


Day One

by rvst



Series: Detective Lucas [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Pretty Little Liars
Genre: F/M, Gen, Trope Bingo Round 3, trope: forbidden fruit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 15:23:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2473055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rvst/pseuds/rvst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby smiled, two allies in this town was better than one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day One

Three days. It took Ruby three days to secure a full transfer from her non-existent deputy position in Storybrooke to a detective in Rosewood. This felt like a severe miscarriage of justice and good ethics to Ruby, but that was before she got into the department itself.

First she was struck dumb by how little checks there were on random people walking in and out of the station itself. Not even in Storybrooke was there the opportunity to just walk into the police station without your presence being questioned. Ruby counted no less than six teenagers who weren't being given so much as a second glance by the entirety of the staff. Well, a guy washing the windows was looking at one of the kids going through a filing cabinet suspiciously, but that was about it.

She took a breath, gave herself a moment of courage-building silence, and entered the bullpen proper. No one looked up at her, aside from one officer that wasn't so much looking at her as he was leering at her ass. Ruby flicked her eyes to his nameplate and filed his name away as one of many, many people to have a closer look at in this town.

The desk assigned to her was clearly marked with a selection of pink balloons loudly declaring 'It's a Girl!', she sniffed at them surreptitiously when she got close enough. The scent on them was clear and thankfully seemed to be just the one person who thought they were funny. Or worse, genuinely thought baby balloons was the best way to welcome a new co-worker to the department. Either way, it was crass and unprofessional to her so she picked up a pair of scissors in the much more appropriate gift basket full of stationary and popped all six balloons, slowly and gaining the attention of everyone else in the room.

“More of a red person, for future reference,” she announced, throwing away the remnants of the balloons into her bin with more force than could be considered necessary. The desk now only contained an 'In' tray and a matching 'Out' tray, along with the welcome basket that was sweet despite the clearly department issued nature of all the stationary that filled it.

When it became clear she was done speaking, the general noise of the station returned and Ruby allowed herself a few cursory glances around the room. Of particular note to her seemed to be the empty desk across from her. She wasn't entirely sure about how mid-sized town police worked but she thought she would at least have a partner. Ruby considered the Rosewood PD highlights Paige gave her when prompted, weighing in her mind if the previous owner of the empty desk was the deceased Detective Wilden or if it was someone else who had quit under the apparently widespread crazy teenagers in the town.

The suspiciously-going-through-cabinets kid had amassed an impressive pile of files, and was heading towards the empty desk, which made him all the more interesting to Ruby. He quietly placed the files on the desk and offered her the top one. She raised her eyebrows in question of the proffered file. He shrugged.

“Paige said you were interested in the odd of Rosewood so I thought I'd help,” he explained, grinning at her in what he probably thought was a charming smile. Now that she had a closer look, and smell, of him, the young man had a slightly familiar scent lingering around his body. Mostly his hair. It took her several seconds of searching her memories before she placed it. Then she took an informed guess.

“Spencer's boyfriend?” His eyes widened almost imperceptibly, but she caught it. “Paige didn't mention your name, young man.”

Ruby made another of her ever-expanding list of notes to inform Paige that she'd gone through the ex-girlfriend's friends in more detail than she thought she did.

“It's Toby, I'm interning here a few times a week while I go through the application process,” he said. Toby seemed to have realized that his smile was unsettling, and replaced it with a determined seriousness that Ruby would have sworn she'd seen on Paige's face when Spencer walked into the coffee shop three days ago. Interesting.

“You want to be a cop?” Toby looked down at his files, shuffling them nervously. Her attention drawn to his hands, she made another educated guess. “Because you strike me as a 'work with his hands' kind of guy,” she continued, making the nervous shuffling go on longer, “like a carpenter or something.”

His eyes flicked to hers, suspicion lighting them up with curiosity and worry. “How did you know that?”

She put the badge the Captain hand-delivered to her the previous night on her desk, facing him. “Detective. I detected the callouses on your hands, either carpenter or my next clever deduction was going to be gardener,” she covered smoothly. Ruby may or may not have spent several hours on the phone with Emma over the last three days working out how exactly to explain results she delivered based on her more than human powers.

Toby examined his own hands, blushing as he noted the dirt underneath his fingernails from the weeding he did before leaving Spencer's that morning. “Oh,” he whispered, Ruby pretended not to hear it.

“Also you reek of her perfume, dude, how do you find the time around school?” He didn't look old enough to have graduated from high school just yet, but his girlfriend could have easily passed for Ruby's age if she dressed the right way so she didn't want to assume.

“I tested out, did some carpentry, odd jobs, some gardening,” Toby admitted before he remembered all he knew about this woman was that Paige seemed to like her. He shifted gears in his mind, deciding that going on the offensive was called for. “Paige said you were a small town Deputy?”

“Storybrooke, small town in Maine. Terrible weather, worse boredom,” Ruby minimally informed him. She decided to use Red for her armed forces, well military, experience for the present and her Storybrooke persona for her past. Bored, ambitious, and wanting to see the world. “Took a long leave of absence, drove around the country and ended up here.”

Ruby took the file Toby dropped onto the desk and skimmed it. Contrary to her assumptions, it wasn't a police file, but a hand written account of an affair carried on with one Ashley Marin. The surname light up Ruby's memory. She lifted the file in her hands while raising her eyebrows, Toby took the hint.

“Detective Wilden took notes on his numerous,” he paused to find the right word, “non-regulation activities. That one is full of his notes concerning a shoplifting charge Hanna got and how he let it slide.”

“Taking a bribe, extortion, possibly blackmail as well,” Ruby muttered, closing the file and putting it down. Toby offered her another one, smiling slightly. Ruby thought that suited him much better. “Different cop?”

As she opened it, Toby answered, “different girl. Allison DiLaurentis.”

If 'Marin' light up her memories, 'Allison' turned them into the sun itself. “The not-dead girl.” Ruby frowned and her forehead creased in confusion, “isn't she a teenager?”

Toby shrugged again, “she seemed to be the one in control of the relationship.” Ruby rolled her eyes.

“This says she was like really young when the relationship started. In control or not, this isn't legal and he was a cop!” Toby seemed taken aback by how vehement she defended Allison, clearly no one else had done that in a while. “Legally she was incapable of consenting, he was in a position of authority over her, so she couldn't have been in control of it.”

“There's more,” Toby tried to distract her. He slid yet another file towards her. “Not Wilden this time, but my own notes.”

Ruby didn't want to read it, fearing more horrible crap from this town. She wasn't disappointed. “Ian Thomas?”

“He carried on with Spencer while engaged to her older sister.”

“This says he was a coach at Spencer's school for a while,” Ruby pointed out, trying to push back her headache. “Aside from you, is there anyone involved with someone age-appropriate in Rosewood?”

Toby thought about it for longer than Ruby would have liked. “Hanna and Caleb are pretty much the same age. If they're dating this week then Paige and Emily are disgustingly appropriate for each other,” he listed with a fond grin. Ruby got why her friend liked him, he seemed sweet. “Emily and I are kind of close, or we were, and Paige and I shoot hoops once a month.”

Ruby smiled, two allies in this town was better than one. She reached for another file from the pile of paedophilia and settled in for her first day at the Rosewood Police Department.


End file.
